The Men Who Risked All to Translate the Bible

The Men Who Risked All to Translate the Bible

Article excerpt

This highly detailed account of the struggle to translate the
Bible into English, beginning with John Wyclif's work in the late
14th century and carrying the story through the King James version
of 1611, makes a fascinating and remarkable book.

The work behind the translations was not easy; in fact, it was
often dangerous. Early translations were made by a series of people
fascinated by the idea of adherence to truth. They didn't all agree
about what the truth was, but their dedication to that concept was
more important to them than their lives. Some died violently for
the cause of translation.

The existence of the text of the Scriptures, available to the
common person for study and discussion, unsupervised by authorities
to give the official meaning, let loose a force that, according to
author Benson Bobrick, made the Reformation inevitable. Once the
basis for moral authority had shifted from the official views of
the church to the private judgment of citizens, based on their own
reading of the Scriptures, people could not be counted on to back
the views of the authorities automatically.

After Wyclif, who died in 1384, the work of biblical translation
into modern European languages did not immediately take off,
because it was opposed in general by the church. Bobrick points
out, however, that "Bible translations, in fact, dominated 16th-
century book production, and by the end of the century every
European nation had the Scriptures in its own tongue."

The work of translation into English was taken up by William
Tyndale in the 1520s, when Henry VIII of England was still a
Catholic. Tyndale had to work on the Continent, and when his
translation reached England in 1526, although many wanted it, it
was contraband.

Beset by opposition, and even shipwreck, Tyndale persisted in
translating and promoting his Bible, opposed in England by the much
praised "man for all seasons," Thomas More, who even put one
heretic, James Bainham, on the rack and had him whipped for, among
other sins, owning Tyndale's translation. Tyndale was eventually
tried for heresy in the Netherlands, convicted, and executed in
August 1536.

Miles Coverdale, who had worked with Tyndale, produced the first
complete translation of the Bible into English in the 1530s, now
with Henry VIII's approval. A variety of translations into English
in the 16th century had wide distribution, though after Henry's
death, attempts were made to turn the nation again to Roman
Catholicism, especially under Queen Mary. But when Elizabeth I took
the throne in 1558, protestantism, though at first embattled,
became settled in the nation. …